September demat account addition falls to 2.89 million amid market selloff

Mumbai: Demat account openings slowed in September to 2.89 million, down 11.5% from August, as the sharpest monthly stock market fall in five months prompted investors to stay on the sidelines. The drop marks the steepest monthly decline in six months though data showed above 9.04 million accounts were opened in the September quarter, the highest quarterly addition in seven quarters.

In August, around 3.27 million new demat accounts were added, compared with 2.89 million in July.

The Sensex and Nifty fell 6% each in September, while the BSE MidCap 150 and BSE SmallCap 250 indices dropped 6.6% and 3.2%, respectively. These declines are their worst monthly fall since March, when both the indices tumbled 11%.

For the September quarter, the demat addition was higher than the 7.03 million accounts opened in April- June and 7.92 million in the same period a year ago. This is the highest quarterly addition since October-December 2024, when 9.88 million accounts were opened, according to data from NSDL and CDSL.
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The total number of demat accounts crossed 240.59 million at the end of September, up 3.9% from the previous quarter and 16.2% from a year earlier. The tally does not represent unique investors, as individuals can hold multiple demat accounts. The number of unique investors stood at 135 million as of August 2026, according to NSE data.
“The demat account additions may have shown a slight dip in September because of short-term market fluctuations, but overall data shows continued increase rise in demat accounts, despite market volatility,” said Ravi Singh, chief research officer, Master Capital Services.The strong IPO activity has been a key trigger for investors to open demat accounts. A total of 69 IPOs raised ₹90,462 crore in the September quarter, the highest quarterly fundraising on record. Average listing gains were around 20% per issue, compared with about 2% between January and June 2026.

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The SME segment also remained active, with 92 companies raising ₹4,132 crore through SME IPOs. Average listing gains for SME IPOs rose to about 19% during the quarter, compared with 7% between January and June 2026.

“The recent IPO season has accelerated the pace of demat account openings in the short to medium term,” said Kranthi Bathini, equity strategist at WealthMills Securities. “The strong performance of recent IPOs has added to investor interest, while the Jio brand could provide an additional boost to new demat account openings,” he said. During the September quarter, the Sensex and Nifty each declined 5.2%, while the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices fell 3% and 0.5%, respectively.